Samsung Pay now lets you store gift cards and buy new ones

You can now ditch those plastic, physical gift cards and start storing them in Samsung Pay instead.

Samsung Pay is a mobile payment wallet that launched a few months ago. It naturally only works on the latest Galaxy devices (Galaxy S6, S6 Edge+, S6 Edge, S6 Active, and Note 5). It also only supports select US carriers (AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, US Cellular, and Verizon) at the moment.

Samsung Pay is accepted anywhere you can tap your credit card. All you have to do is swipe up from your phone to launch the Samsung Pay app, which is available on Google Play as a free download, then give permission with a fingerprint, and finally, hover your phone over the card reader. That's it.

Keep in mind funds are debited from your credit or debit card. However, with today's new update, you'll now be able to pay for goods using gift cards. Samsung has added support for gift cards. Cards from "50 popular merchants" are available at launch, including ones from Staples, GameStop, Toys R Us, Regal cinemas, eBay, Whole Foods, and more.

You'll noticed gift cards appear in a different tab from credit/debit cards you've already stored. Retailers can scan the gift card on your screen or enter a code. This functionality is similar to what Apple's Wallet app and Google's Android Pay has long offered. We think it would be neater if Samsung used magnetic secure transmission instead, though.

Today's Samsung Pay update also includes a new store that you can use to find and purchase cards that you can then gift to yourself or someone else.

Oh, and Samsung said support for Discover credit cards will arrive in 2016.